Hey there. I actually felt the same way for a long time but I kept going back to it and also reading the manual. I do a lot of work in Blender and blender is pretty much famous for not being the easiest thing to deal with when it comes to materials and texturing.

So I kept coming back and asking.

Finally, one day I stopped asking so many questions and just decided I was going to do it--so here are my tips:

1. try just painting with it first--dont do the images and such --just noodle around with the paint and the brushes.

2. When you load in your object, don't forget to control A to select it--i then go to utilities and to the paint setup wizard and just have it generate a UV map for me. 

3. When you have done that, you are ready to paint---when yiou load in a model load in something simple like a cube just so you play around a bit.

4. save often.

5 hit space for the menu--its faster

6. Control S to save

7. you can change tools quickly too by utilizing the F keys--try it.  

8. Finally, I have a LOT to learn and I am new at this like you--when I was born, Noah was sitting at his rickety old wooden table drawing up plans for a really big boat--so I am NOT the most computer saavy of them all but I don't give up.

9 Questions:  Post your questions in a specific manner and someone WILL answer. You don't need to explain the situation that much just be direct. Again do not try to learn everything at once.  You will get frustrated very fast.

TO EVERYONE ON THIS FORUM:

I have just added my two cents worth as far as tips go--please feel free to jump in and relate your own experiences and lets me this thread a handy tips page--the software is well worth the effort! :-)